Saturday, November 17, 2018

Almost a month after reports of a Tata-Jet Airways deal first surfaced, Tata Sons on Friday confirmed that it has held “preliminary” discussions on the matter but not made any concrete proposal for taking over the cash-strapped, struggling airline. So far, the company was maintaining that it does not comment on speculation.

“Over the last few days there has been growing speculation in the print and electronic media about Tata’s interest in Jet Airways. We would like to clarify that any such discussions have been preliminary and no proposal has been made,” a Tata Sons statement said.
Separately, industry sources said the Tata Sons board, which met on Friday, was still evaluating various options for taking over Jet Airways, which are acceptable to both the sides. Sources said several more meetings would take place and any announcement would take time.
While Tatas want Jet Airways promoter-chairman Naresh Goyal to exit the company, the latter is driving a hard bargain on the same.

On Thursday, Jet Airways had informed the stock exchanges that reports (on merger of Vistara with Jet)
is purely speculative in nature and that there are no discussions or decisions by the board, which would require a disclosure.
However, in a post-earnings call with analysts, Jet’s deputy chief executive and chief financial officer Amit Agarwal had admitted that the company was in talks with multiple interested parties for fund infusion as well as selling six of its Boeing 777 planes and a stake in its loyalty progarmme Jet Privilege.
17/11/18 Financial Express